


The Moth To The Flame

by YourLocalPriestess



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Angst, Break Up, F/F, F/M, Suffering, who dumps someone in the middle of a blight anyway?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 04:51:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11867112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourLocalPriestess/pseuds/YourLocalPriestess
Summary: The Warden is not the beacon of goodness she became in legend. She made many poor choices along the way.Romancing Alistair was one of them.





	The Moth To The Flame

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first DA fic oh my godddddddd. 
> 
> Anyway, for Day 17 of Fanfiction Month. Prompt: Break Up. (Yes, I know I'm late humor meeeee)

Dae takes a deep breath as she places her hand on the pelt of fur covering the entrance to her tent. She’s not sure why she feels so nervous; so queasy. Her breath wavers slightly on each inhale. It is always much safer and quieter in her tent. She should stay inside. She could always do it tomorrow. She could –

The sound of a lute playing a few meters away stops her thoughts in their spiraling train of justifications. Leliana’s voice floats into her space – suffocating, even as it’s warped by wind and tents and distance. She’s singing Dae’s favorite song; about an elf who gave up their life of adventure and riches and glory for the sake of herself. The pleasure of doing nothing.

What a strange, impossible concept, like so many other things in Dae’s life.

With a sigh, she steps outside. Everyone was still winding down from dinner. Morrigan, Sten, and Shale were all in their respective leave-me-alone-now spaces, which was fine by her. This wasn’t a night she wanted to build the team spirit, so to speak. In fact, this might be the night that fucked everything right to hell.

She glances to her right and Wynne catches her eye. The older woman raised an eyebrow in her direction, while still leaving the impression she was paying attention to the human requisitions officer. Dae nods once and steps forward. Onward.

And maker, she tries not to look at Leliana. She really, really does.

A moth is hapless to the call of a flame, and Dae is hapless to steal a glance, if only for a moment.

Leliana is already looking at her, still singing to Oghren who is near unconscious at her feet. The ghost of a smile that graced her lips falls away when she catches Dae’s expression, but her song continues without falter. Many things about Leliana are without falter. Her openness, her kindness, her faith, her trust.

Dae looks away and settles her gaze on the warden by the fire. He hasn’t noticed her yet, and thank the maker for that, because she already feels her palms sweating and her heart racing. For all the wrong reasons. She tries to forget the eyes on her as she approaches him.

“Warden,” he says with a grin when she enters his field of vision. Between that and the fire, his eyes look like molten honey. Maker, if he could only ever stop being so _nice_.

There’s a horrible beat of quiet between them as she shifts from foot to foot and fights the urge to look anywhere but his face. His own expression transforms from warmth to worry in seconds.

“What’s wrong?”

Dae’s mouth is too dry. Her tongue scrapes against the back of her teeth, fighting to push out the words that have been building in her chest for weeks.

“We need to end things,” she blurts.

And his face crumples. Every ounce of trust he ever gave her, withering and dying before her very eyes, as if she’d spit on it in the process. “Can I ask why?” His voice is too soft, too hollow.

“I’m–” She doesn’t want to tell him. It’s her own bullshit to work out. It’s not his business. Not really. But she’s the one doing the leaving in the middle of a makerdamn Blight. “I’m interested in someone else.”

His face switches again, a flash of anger before settling on confusion, and he straightens. “Who?”

She shakes her head. “We’re not doing that, the blame swapping pettiness. I’m the only one at fault in this, and I apologize for hurting you Alistair, but we both deserve better than what we have together.”

“Right.” And his face goes hard and dark and she feels the familiar twist in her gut telling her just how royally she’s fucked this up, but it’s too late now. “I’ll…leave you alone then.”

“Right.” She shuffles her feet, unsure of what to do next, but he isn’t even looking at her now. His eyes are far away. “I’ll – I’ll just be off to bed.”

She keeps her eyes to the ground as she retreats into her tent, a coward. She doesn’t have guard duty for another few hours, and that will be with Zevran. Maybe it will occupy her mind then, but for now she has to feel all this leftover shit that she doesn’t want in the first place.

Dae settles onto her cot and pulls out a sleeping draught, downing it in one gulp. There would be other days to deal with this. Not today.

She can still hear Leliana’s voice as she drifts into sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> DSKFNRENFLKDSJFLSJJK I love my Warden so much, but she definitely is a bit of an ass, and made an ass of herself plenty during the Blight. Here's to my first DA fic *takes a shot* And here's to you for suffering through it *takes two more shots*
> 
> ANYWAY, thank you so much for reading <3 Any comments/kudos/what-have-yous are deeply appreciated ^_^


End file.
